Sorry for double-post; I don’t see an edit button… But Novil, you may want to check your advert’s code, because now this came up for me. I’m not using an ad-blocker or anything, and the banners to the sides and top of the page load just fine, but that advert in the comments section keeps failing.

Very polite of Woo to offer Harvey a rat even though he poked him in the eye five minutes… excuse me, I mean 4 hours ago.
And once again it is proven: Be careful what you wish for you just might get it.

But honestly: Larisa can’t start a fire?
…
“I wonder why they call this one ‘heavy rain’…” >_>’
( a cookie for who is getting this)

Ah, rat: the most versatile object of tabletop fantasy.
Alive, it can help you. Dead, you can poison someone with it. Roasted, you can eat it. Skeletonized, get yourself a necromancer and you have a minion. Put it on a string, you’ve got bait. Put it on a stick, you have a flail. 🙂
If you go to a dungeon, never forget to bring your cage of rats!

I wonder what species of rat that is. It looks like a true rat (Old World rat), which would probably make it a black rat or a brown rat. But since this story is set in North America, I don’t think black or brown rats would be found in the middle of a forest that is well away from human habitation. Maybe I’m wrong.

REAL pyros can STILL start fire in a pouring rain! True story – my best friend Michael did it once by tossing gasoline on a pile of wood. He shielded a match from the rain and, after a few tries, succesfully tossed it onto the gas to get it going. Did it go for very long? No. BUT IT WENT, GOSHDARNIT.

@ kesadisan:
Asia is a pretty big place. There is bound to be one asian country that has rat as a staple of their national food. I mean, it’s not everywhere in Europe where people eat (insert something unique to a specific culture) neither.

@ Zeronikku: Squirrell … Rat … whatver. They’re rodents. They taste good if prepared right. Don’t forget, rabbit is considered to be “good food” … even sold in many grocery stores … it’s basically a long-eared rat.

Speaking of rat quotes … first thing I thought of; “that’s not a hamburger … do you see any cows around here?”

“This is a ratburger?” [To lady who served the burger:] “This is rat?”

How to build a fire in a rainy forest:
1) Search for a very thick log, it is most likely that somewhere in a middle there still would be some dry wood.
2) Take off your coat and put it above the dry wood to protect it from rain.
3) …
4) Profit!

Frank, of course you are quite right that Old World rats are found almost all over the world. However, brown rats do prefer to live in and near human habitations. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find them in the nearest town or the nearest farmstead. But finding them in the very middle of the forest itself doesn’t seem so likely to me. As for black rats, they tend to prefer warmer climates, and I get the impression that this forest is in a more northern region. If that is the case, brown rats would be much more likely than black rats. But again, I could be wrong.